Arch Linux

smitty

Member

Registered: 2008-01-17

Posts: 73

EXT3-fs error (device sdb1), no results in Google

I am presently using kernel26-2.6.22.9-1 using x86_64. I am also using EXT3 file system for SDB1 and SWAP is set on SDB5 on a 300GB hard drive. Windows XP is on sda and Archlinux is on sdb. I use Windows still for Games.
   The situation is that I tried using Ext2Mgr program in Windows that lets you transfer files from Windows to Linux. I enabled write support for EXt2mgr in Windows and transfered some files and it was fine, until I went back into ArchLinux. I then booted Archlinux, and the messages were flooding, therefore I couldn't log all the messages. I do remember getting error messages similar this post: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=29043(except for the first six lines and the last six). Also, I didn't try ide-legacy, because it was working before without it. From my experience, It may have been trying to fix the inodes, although I could be wrong. At this point in the boot process, it seemed to lock up. Therfore, I rebooted.
   I can't recall why, but it at that point couldn't boot into the system, so I tried ultimately re-installing ArchLinux again, and everything worked fine, until I was getting my repositories on CD installed. The last command I applied was 'cp -v /mnt/dvd/other/* ~/repository/other' using the root account. At this occurence, It was appearing to lockup on certain files it was trying to copy. I tried to figure this out by using such commands as 'top' and 'ps -aux', but any of these appeared unsuccessful. Instead of rebooting, I let it finish what it was doing, and here is where it left off:

/rc-iso/2007.0/x86_64/Archlinux-x86_64-2007.10-0.3.ftp.iso' -> 'root/repository/other/rc-iso/2007.11/x86_64/Archlinux-x86_64-2007.10-0.3.ftp.iso
EXT3-fs error (device sdb1): in ext3_new_blocks: Journal has aborted ext3_abort called
EXT3-fs error (device sdb1): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only

I tried googling this topic and searching this forum for situations that are alike and similar to this, but none that was tailored to my particular circumstance. I also tried testing for bad blocks using my Sabayon disk prior to the latest ArchLinux installation. My questions are, what can be the possibilities of the situtation and of a solution? From this experience, I gather it is better to use the Ex2Mgr program for read support only (similar to when hard drives were safer to allow it to read than to write NTFS drives when the support for NTFS just came out in Linux). I didn't realize this at the time of using this program, however.

P.S. I should add that I also tried using smartmontools (http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/) in Windows and it detected no hardware errors.

Last edited by smitty (2008-03-05 14:57:39)

smitty

Member

Registered: 2008-01-17

Posts: 73

Re: EXT3-fs error (device sdb1), no results in Google

Problem solved! I found out using Seagate's DiscWizard(http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor … discwizard software that there are many errors in sectors on the disc. Here is what it specifically stated:

Failed to write to the sector 63 of the hard disc 2

(and this repeated for many sectors on the disc)
According to http://www.diskdatarecovery.net/, there are four possible causes for this:

Hardware Malfunction - 44 Percent of all Data Loss
User Error - 32 Percent of all Data Loss
Software Corruption - 14 Percent of all Data Loss
Computer Viruses - 7 Percent of all Data Loss
Natural Disasters - 3 Percent of all Data Loss

I suspect it might be data loss, IMO. If this is correct, I want to try to prevent it from happening in the future. Anyone who has any additional insights or suggestions would be highly appreciated.